House votes to repeal 'Obamacare' — again

The House voted again to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care reform law Wednesday, sending a symbolic but powerful GOP message to voters: The Supreme Court may have upheld it, but it’s still a bad law.

All Republicans supported the measure, which passed 244-185. Five Democrats voted in favor of repeal: Reps. Mike Ross of Arkansas, Mike McIntyre and Larry Kissell of North Carolina, Dan Boren of Oklahoma, and Jim Matheson of Utah.

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Kissell and Matheson voted against repeal the last time the House voted to wipe out the law, in January 2011. The others all voted for repeal both times.

It’s the second time the House has voted to repeal the entire health care law — and the 33rd time House Republicans have voted to repeal, defund or knock down any piece of the law. But like almost all of the other attempts, this measure is certain to die in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

That doesn’t mean Senate Republicans won’t try, though. They may make new attempts to force a vote on repeal — starting with a small business bill, where Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has filed a repeal measure as an amendment.

McConnell said this week that he wants the Senate to vote on the repeal bill again. But it’s unclear whether Republicans will really push for a vote in the upper chamber or just pay lip service to repeal. And even if Majority Leader Harry Reid allows the bill to get a vote on the Senate floor, it is certain not to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

The Senate already defeated another measure to repeal the entire health care law last year, shortly after the House’s January 2011 vote to wipe it out.

In the House, Wednesday’s vote is likely to be the last vote on health reform before the August recess.

But with an eye on the November elections, Republicans pledged to keep trying to defeat the law, even after last month’s Supreme Court decision that the law’s individual mandate was constitutional.

“This law continues to make our economy worse and there’s even more resolve to see that it is fully repealed,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). “We’re giving our colleagues in the Senate another chance to heed the will of the American people. And for those who did not support repeal the last time, it’s a chance for our colleagues to reconsider.”

“I think we’ll do a lot more” to advance the repeal effort, said Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) “We’re doing more hearings… so that the contrast is drawn, that the American people know who’s fighting for patients and that’s the Republican Party.”

Matheson, who opposed the law in March 2010 but also opposed full repeal last year, said the time has come to get rid of the whole law because it is not reducing costs, even though he supports some provisions of it.

"Plain and simple, the bill is a flawed effort that fails to address the critical issue of rising health costs," he said in a statement. "With the Supreme Court ruling behind us, and as I reflect on my conversations with Utahns, I think about protecting the future of our economy. We must scrap this flawed effort once and for all, start over, and do it right."